Claremont
While Stevens High was a 2-0 winner over Fall Mountain on Friday night at Monadnock Park, the match was not locked up until the Cardinals scored on a penalty kick with 6:09 to play.
Caleb Royce accounted for both Stevens goals in the season-starting victory.
“We certainly needed that second goal,” Stevens coach Jason Stone said. “We might have had the advantage all night long, but it was never a comfortable lead.”
The Cardinals are playing in NHIAA Division II this season after several years in D-III while, at the same time, seeing the total roster plunge to just 22 players. This has left Stone to trying to figure out how he can manipulate his roster so he can have a junior varsity squad as well.
“I understand the junior varsity can play nine-on-nine,” he said, at the same time wondering if Plymouth, Tuesday’s home opponent, would go along with that.
“This was a big win, because we don’t know how many we are going to get in Division II,” Stone said.
The Cardinals had an 11-1 edge in shots on goal and a 12-1 advantage in corners.
Fall Mountain, a Division III team, came into the game with defense in mind.
“We were concentrating of defending and being in shape,” said first-year Wildcat coach Josh Beer, who replaced Tim St. Pierre and previously coached the junior varsity for three seasons.
“The execution and offense will come,” Beer added. “This is our arch-rival and probably the toughest game we will have all year.”
At times, it was obvious the teams were playing their first meaningful contests, but midway through the game the passes became crisper and the midfield play smoother.
“Yeah, it was pretty sloppy at times,” Stone said.
The goal that put the Cardinals up, 2-0, came on a penalty kick following an infraction inside the Wildcats’ penalty area.
“What happened?” Beer asked.
Official Gary Bean explained: “He picked him up and threw him to the ground in the area.”
Royce took the penalty kick and drilled it into the left-side corner, giving Fall Mountain goalkeeper Joey Leining no chance to get a hand on it.
The first Stevens goal came after a long siege of deep penetration that finally resulted into a dandy of a goal. Ian Fitzpatrick flew down the left sideline and crossed the ball over beyond the midfield area to Royce, who moved several steps to his right. As he cleared his coverage, Royce banged the ball inside the far post on the left side — again, Leining had no chance.
Asked if he just hammered away or aimed for the far post, Royce said, “I hit what I was aiming for.”
Before the first Stevens goal, the Cardinals spent the majority of the time in Fall Mountain’s end and, in the first seven minutes, had four corner kicks. Stevens had seven such kicks in the first half and could not capitalize on any of them.
Stevens goalkeeper Cooper Moote had one routine save in the first half and none in the second.
Fall Mountain goes to Mascoma on Tuesday.